Vengeance Incarnate
by Kisa Darkhorse
Summary: A 1st person POV oneshot character piece on Javik. This is only a spoiler if you don't know who Javik is. Rated T just to be safe. Sort of an intense piece. "Pain. Sadness. Bitterness. Vengeance. These are the guiding forces of my life now. But never weakness. Weakness is for the lesser species. My empire is gone."


**I wrote this right after I completed the Eden Prime mission. This was my first impression of Javik. This is only a spoiler if you don't know who Javik is.**

**Vengeance Incarnate**

Pain. Sadness. Bitterness. Vengeance. These are the guiding forces of my life now. But never weakness. Weakness is for the lesser species. My empire is gone. It will never rise again. Never again will the structures of my forefathers rise to reach the stratosphere and beyond. The spires full of the memories of my ancestors, the meditation chambers full of the sounds of water, the peace of knowing that my people were the dominant race of our cycle and always would be. The Protheans were the masters of their own fate and it was because of that mastery that my people fell to the Reapers. We could not adapt and once the machines knew our weakness my people watched as we were slowly taken apart from the inside. I watched as fellow warriors, brothers I had known since I was old enough to hold a rifle, succumb to indoctrination and turn on us. I have had to shoot husks that were once friends, soldiers, brothers. I will never forget those images. Spilling the blood of my people as they attempted to kill us all. I will never forget nor do I want to. They drive me; give me purpose. I am the avatar of Vengeance and I will not stop until every last Reaper is dead or I am. The blood of my enemies or Death.

Now I am stuck in this primitive cycle watching as the species I once saw struggle to survive their own planets' environments wage war on the murderers of my people. They have heart and spirit, I can acknowledge that. They have not evolved to the point of my civilization and I do believe they are capable of doing so but they are still determined to fight. I do not know why the Reaper forces are attacking now. These species are still so young that I would not give them a rifle and yet they are the dominant races of their cycle. So much has changed from the way things were. Many of the crew aboard the ship do not believe I watch yet they are wrong. I must observe these races. They are the hope of this cycle and my only allies against the Reapers. I do not approve of certain aspects of their tactics; indeed, I believe they will be this cycle's downfall and yet they push forward. Mercy is a weakness but the one they call Commander Shepard extends it at every opportunity. Earlier, I watched as an engineer made a mistake refitting a console's power conduit. This mistake made the console lose power for an hour while it was being corrected. In the empire, a mistake like that would have been punished severely and yet Shepard merely told the engineer to be more careful during his work and left the human to his repairs. I did not approve but as I observed the engineer I noticed something strange. The human refitted the console again but in half the time as before. As the human tested the console, it powered on immediately and ran in perfect working order. Once satisfied with his work, the human moved quickly on to his next tasks, all of which he completed properly in a rapid fashion.

When I mentioned my dislike of Commander Shepard's methods the only response I received was that if they had worked well enough to delay the extinction perhaps they would win the war. The crew is loyal to their Commander to a fault. In the empire, the commander would be placed under watch of treachery. Loyalty such as displayed by the crew would be seen as a danger to empire for many an ambitious general had sought to seize control. But this is not the empire and loyalty such as this is rewarded greatly in this cycle.

Perhaps that is my answer. This is not my cycle and the time when my people ruled the galaxy is over. My empire, my home, is gone and it will never rise again. To this cycle, my people are nothing more than stories told of long ago. The primitive creatures my ancestors cultivated into subservient species now command the galaxy and all its peoples. But they appear nearly as peaceful as the histories of my people claim the galaxy was in my cycle. How do these primitive find the peace of the mighty Prothean Empire while still being so divided? Perhaps the scholars of my cycle could explain but I am not a scholar. I am a warrior skilled only in the art of killing. Here is where the differences of our kinds is the most apparent. My people's warriors were trained to kill; the Commander and the other warriors of this cycle are trained to defend. I am not so blind as to deny that these warriors are as effective as many of the vanguard of my own people but I am an old warrior. Ancient after my stasis. I am too set in the ways of my people to change. I am the last of my kind and I will uphold the traditions of my people as long as there is breath in my body.

My people once thought that as a warrior matured he would come to embody one attribute and become the avatar of this attribute to enforce its power on the empire. Once, I was the avatar of decision. A leader among my people. All that was has now changed. My empire is dead and so is a part of my soul. Now my will is Vengeance. I am the last of the Protheans but I will ensure the galaxy remembers the Empire. Woe to the enemy that crosses my path for the last thing they will hear is one voice crying out with the rage and pain of the many. For the glory of the Empire and death to the Reapers!


End file.
